Must it be green lawns vs. green vegetables?

• Author: Rooney, Emily
• Position: California drought - Ecology

WHETHER YOU LIVE in a rural area or a big city, here in California chances are your drive to work, or to different areas around the state, looks different these days. Gone are the green lawns lining your street; wells have dried up; and, along the typically fertile Interstate 5, many crop fields are left unplanted, while some orchards have been abandoned altogether. My daily commute includes passing by the brown lawn leading up to the Capitol in Sacramento.

We all are coping and attempting to do our part to survive yet another parched summer. For me, the devastating water shortage runs deeper than trying to remember to shut the faucet off while brushing. I come from a long line of California farmers and ranchers, and we see the impacts of the drought firsthand on my family's ranch. I feel blessed to have built a livelihood raising healthy products--such as almonds, raisins, and citrus--for the world to consume.

Like everyone in California, farmers and dairymen are struggling to get by with as little water as possible. You have seen the news reports and watched news panelists discuss "who's using what." Now, with the 2015 harvest underway for many crops, we farmers want to provide consumers with the facts about how food producers are doing their part to conserve so that the fight for water does not pit green lawns against green vegetables.

California produces roughly 50% of the entire nation's fruits and vegetables. On average, American consumers spend 10% of their income on food, which means that, when it comes to precious resources, water is right at the top of the list. Yes, it is painful to be penalized for washing our cars, and it hurts to lose landscaping. However, California agriculture faces some truly long-lasting consequences from this drought that we all need to understand clearly because, in the end, it will affect all families--and could cost us much more than replanting sod.

According to the California Department of Water Resources, agriculture accounts for 40.9% of California's water source annually, not the 80% that has been reported--that latter figure excluded water use preserved for environmental purposes and caused much confusion. The allegations about consumers and municipalities being the only ones receiving restrictions simply are not true.

More than 41% of California's irrigated farmlands have received deep cuts and, with recent mandates curtailing groundwater rights --some established as far back as 1914--the...